It’s a popular way to for students to show pride during sporting events and rallies, but school and district officials are now warning students that the chants could appear inappropriate and intolerant.

“I wasn’t angry, but I was definitely like, ‘Why can’t we chant USA?’” said senior Ryan Bernal, “To say USA, you know, we’re all the same. We’re all American. It doesn’t matter what your skin tone is or where you’re from.”

The chants are now causing chatter campus-wide after school staff brought up the topic to a leadership class.

At some schools across the country, the chants appeared to be used in derogatory ways toward opponents of different ethnicities. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which oversees high school athletics, addressed the concerns with local districts.

“There’s a time and a place to yell that and cheer that,” said CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Commissioner Mike Garrison.

The school’s principal sent out an email to families Wednesday and relayed the same message to students over the school’s P.A. system, clarifying any confusion. She told students and parents that sometimes “We can communicate an unintended message.” She also said USA chanting is welcome, but it may be best to do it at what she says are appropriate times, like following the national anthem or the Pledge of Allegiance.

School officials worry the chants could come across as intolerant and offensive to some, but parents see it differently, as an expression of pride and acceptance.

Mother Natalie Woodbury said, “I want to chant USA because I want us to pull together and help, not because I want anybody to feel left out or not a part of our country. ”

District officials say they want to make clear that there is no ban on chanting USA.

I’m glad that they will still allow our students to cheer for our country,” said Mother Cody Santero.

It’s a chant Bernal says will continue to be about uniting, not dividing. “We’re all one. We all stand as one together,” she said.

The district says there has never been a complaint about USA chants at the school. Students say there’s likely to be a lot of chanting at an upcoming football game, where the theme is USA pride.

I told you about this school in August when a kindergarten teacher led a “transgender” discussion in class, to introduce a child who was “transitioning,” without notifying parents of the discussion. Many parents were outraged.

Looks like the school is doubling down on denying biology and moving forward with the “transgender” agenda.

From KCRA: The school board for Rocklin Academy Charter School voted late Monday night in favor of a literary policy that allows controversial books like “I Am Jazz,” which is about a transgender girl, to be read in class and won’t allow parents the option of opting their children out of that lesson.

However, the school will “endeavor” to notify parents about such controversial topics.

Hundreds of parents packed the charter school board meeting for the Rocklin Academy Family of Schools Monday for a passionate debate about gender identity and its place in the classroom.

Some parents proposed a new policy requiring the charter school to let them know if controversial topics, like gender identity, would be discussed in class and allow their students to opt out.

“For them to say that they can teach my child about transgender without me even knowing about it is wrong,” said parent Chelsea McQuistan, who has two children who attend Rocklin Academy Gateway and a third who is about to enter kindergarten.

“Gender and sexuality are not the same thing, and I think we end up in a place where parents can opt out of anything they find offensive, which is subjective,” said Jen Hansen, another parent in the charter school.

The debate was sparked in June when a Rocklin Academy Gateway transgender student brought the book “I Am Jazz,” to her kindergarten class. She then asked the teacher to read the book, which is about a transgender girl’s transition, to the class so other students knew what she was going through.

Some parents said their children came home questioning their gender after school. “This book was outside the curriculum and I see it as a controversial subject to discuss with a kindergartner,” said Wendy Sickler, who is the parent of two kids at Rocklin Academy Gateway.

Ankur Dhawan’s daughter was in class when the teacher read “I Am Jazz” to students and was taken aback when she told him about it.

“I’ve struggled with the question of parental notification quite a bit. But when I put my need against the child who’s going through that transition, I realized it’s not the same thing,” Dhawan said. “This child needs us to come together as a community and respect their dignity and their character.”

California law allows parents to opt out of sex education, but gender identity doesn’t fall under that category.

“It’s like race or religion or ethnicity. It’s a protected class but it’s not sex ed so parents actually don’t have the opportunity to opt out and it would be illegal for the school to make it possible to opt out,” said Elizabeth Ashford, who works for Fiona Hutton and Associates, the public relations firm hired by Rocklin Academy to serve as spokesperson.

“It does not prohibit an opt-out provision for school districts, so for them to say that is just disingenuous,” California Family Council Director Greg Burt said in response to Ashford’s statement.

The school board heard more than three hours of comment before they voted late Monday to not to change their current literature policy, which allows the inclusion of transgender characters, and “endeavor” to notify parents about controversial topics.

“The school is going to endeavor to do that,” Ashford said. “If they can’t get to it ahead of it, they will try to inform the parents after the fact.”

The board also struck down a proposal to allow parents to opt out of gender identity topics in class.

Rocklin Academy said 14 families have chosen to disenroll from their charter schools as a result of this issue, and they expect more families to withdraw in the wake of the board meeting.

The death of Kate Steinle meant nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, to demorats in California.

I cannot express here, within our guidelines, how outraged I am with the so-called lawmakers of that state.

From Fox News: Lawmakers in California on Saturday passed “sanctuary state” legislation even as President Trump and his administration have vowed to crack down on jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration agents.

The bill approved early Saturday limits police cooperation with federal immigration authorities and is intended to bolster protections for illegal immigrants in the state.

But the acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Saturday warned of “tragic consequences,” saying the policy “will make California communities less safe.”

“By passing this bill, California politicians have chosen to prioritize politics over public safety,” Thomas Homan, the acting director of ICE, said in a statement. “Disturbingly, the legislation serves to codify a dangerous policy that deliberately obstructs our country’s immigration laws and shelters serious criminal alien offenders.”

Homan said ICE wants to work with local law enforcement to prevent “dangerous criminal aliens” from being released back onto the streets.

The legislation will now be considered by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who announced his support after the top state Senate leader agreed to water down the bill and preserve authority for jail and prison officials to cooperate with immigration officers in many cases.

The bill that passed Saturday prohibits law enforcement officials from asking about a person’s immigration status or participating in immigration enforcement efforts. It also prohibits law enforcement officials from being deputized as immigration agents or arresting people on civil immigration warrants.

The legislation follows Trump’s vow to crack down on sanctuary cities. Such policies limit just how much local law enforcement officials cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

The debate about sanctuary cities intensified in July 2015 when Katie Steinle, 32, was killed as she strolled along the San Francisco waterfront with her father. Steinle was fatally shot by a illegal alien with a criminal record who had slipped into the U.S. multiple times illegally.

On Friday, a federal judge in Chicago has ruled Attorney General Jeff Sessions can’t withhold public grant money from so-called sanctuary cities for refusing to follow federal immigration policies.

The ruling means the Justice Department cannot deny grant money requests until Chicago’s lawsuit against the agency is concluded. Leinenweber wrote that Chicago has shown a “likelihood of success” in its arguments that Sessions overstepped his authority with the requirements.

The city of Chicago sued the Trump administration in August after it threatened to withhold funds from sanctuary cities, and refused to comply with the Justice Department’s demand that it allow immigration agents access to local jails and notify agents when someone in the U.S. is about to be released from custody.

At least seven cities and counties, including Seattle and San Francisco, have refused to cooperate with new federal rules regarding sanctuary cities.

From Sacramento Bee: A year ago, Luis Alberto Mendez was an able-bodied immigrant from Mexico who worked as a carpenter. He had suffered from depression, but his lawyer said he had gotten the symptoms under control with medication. He was also undocumented illegal.

Today Mendez is a quadriplegic who is confined to his brother’s home in San Jose. He needs constant care and has no money. He blames Sacramento County and the U.S. government, and he’s suing them both.

Mendez, 37, is a native of Mexico who does not dispute that he was in the United States illegally in 2016. When agents detained him, he willingly signed an order agreeing to immediate deportation, his lawyer says. If the government had just sent him home then, he contends, he would not be paralyzed.

Instead, he was taken to the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove. There, his lawsuit claims, jailers ignored his pleas for access to medical care. He eventually attempted to kill himself by jumping off a second story balcony on the prison grounds, his lawyer said.

The fall didn’t kill him, but it left him a quadriplegic in need of a lifetime of medical care. His lawsuit accuses the U.S. government and Sacramento County of negligence, Fresno attorney Douglas Gordon said Friday.

“He is at a little home in the San Jose area being tended to by his family,” said Gordon, who filed the lawsuit in federal court in Sacramento on Thursday. “He’s quadriplegic; he has no money.”

The circumstances that led to Mendez being detained remain unclear.

Gordon, his lawyer, notes that federal policy at that time would have directed immigration agents to leave him alone because he had no felony convictions or criminal ties that would have led them to deport him.

Nonetheless, ICE agents set up shop outside his San Jose home in August 2016 waiting for him to appear. “They had him on some sort of list, had information on where he lived,” Gordon said. “They waited for him to come out of his house, and when he came out on his bicycle riding to work they detained him.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman James Schwab said the agency would not comment on pending litigation.

But Gordon maintains that federal policy at the time, under the Obama administration, required that ICE agents ignore his presence in the country and focus instead on dangerous criminals or gang members.

“The worst crime that ICE has on him was a 2015 assault that was dismissed as misdemeanor,” Gordon said. “He was not supposed to be targeted.”

When Mendez was apprehended by ICE for removal on Aug. 15, 2016, the agency was working under the Morton Memo, authorized by President Obama in March 2011. That memo states that ICE’s number one priority is “aliens who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety.”

Immigrants convicted of crimes, particularly violent criminals, felons, repeat offenders and members of organized crime, all were singled out as priorities.

Those with mental health issues, like Mendez, were not supposed to be targeted. “Absent extraordinary circumstances or requirements of mandatory detention, field office directors should not expend detention resources on aliens who are known to be suffering from serious physical or mental illness,” the memo states.

Mendez apparently was targeted despite that edict, and appeared before a deportation officer on Aug. 15, 2016. He signed a voluntary deportation order, which typically would have resulted in him being flown home to Mexico.

Instead, for reasons that have yet to be explained, Mendez was given a notice to appear before an immigration judge in the future. He was shipped off to the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, where federal officials contract with the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department to hold ICE detainees.

Once there, the suit states, Mendez began asking for help for his psychiatric needs, which included access to anti-psychotic drugs to deal with a schizophrenia diagnosis, his attorney said.

Mendez had been suffering from depression before he was detained, and tried to cut himself on his neck in February 2016 and again in June 2016, Gordon said. He subsequently was prescribed anti-psychotic medications and he “was well maintained and doing fine,” Gordon said.

“Then, he was detained,” Gordon said, and authorities denied him access to such medications.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Shaun Hampton declined to comment on the suit Friday, saying county officials had not yet seen it.

The lawsuit says that because Mendez was denied “reasonable care,” he attempted to kill himself by jumping off “an elevated structure” and fell, hitting his head and suffering spinal cord injuries, a traumatic brain injury and other damage.

The injuries will require a lifetime of medical care, his attorney said, and his family has had difficulty caring for him.

“They’ve struggled to get him on Medi-Cal,” Gordon said. “He has nobody to care for him except his brother and sister, who work. It’s a real struggle for the family.”

From Fox News: How bad has gun violence gotten in Sacramento, Calif.? City leaders now plan to pay gang members $1.5 million for a cease-fire.

Following a fatal shooting last weekend in a city park, the Sacramento city council unanimously approved a controversial program called Advance Peace in an effort to address a recent spike in violence.

The program offers gang members cash stipends for graduating from school and generally staying out of trouble.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg requested that the vote be moved up in response to the park shooting, which left one person dead and four injured, Fox 40 reported. The vote was supposed to take place in two weeks. “Let’s get going on doing everything we can to save innocent lives,” Steinberg told Fox 40.

The $1.5 million in cash stipends to gang members will come from the city’s general fund. A similar program is being used in Richmond, Calif., and Stockton is considering it.

In Sacramento, the city council voted 9-0 in favor of the program, but the language of the contract has not been finalized.

However, critics remain skeptical that the plan will be effective.

“How’s the vote going to change anything? It’s up to the community to change. You know what I mean? It’s just senseless,” Allen Brown, a friend of Ernie Cadena, 49, who was killed in the park shooting Sunday, told Fox 40.

Apparently “body-shaming” is A-OK when you have Trump Derangement Syndrome and double standards.

And another celebrity creating a product in response to their butt hurt over Trump? How original…

From Daily Mail: John Legend posted a casting call for actors who look like Trump supporters. According to a listing on Casting Networks in LA, the musician’s newest video requires eight white men and women, 30-65 years old, who are ‘preferably out of shape.’

The actors will be playing protesters on a set of a political rally with a Black Lives Matter group playing the opposition. The casting call for the Black Lives Matter protesters lists the requirements as eight black men and women ages 18-35.

And there is an ad for 10 young and blonde white males ages 18-35 with ‘very short hair or short on sides, long on top.’

Legend, 38, is not afraid to speak his mind when it comes to politics, so it is no surprise he is incorporating his opinions into his music videos. In an interview with Guardian on Sunday, the Beauty And The Beast singer said: ‘I think Trump is an embarrassment to the country.’

‘When he is criticising something, he is usually projecting. So, he calls people liars because he is a liar. He talks about people being violent because he encourages violence,’ he continued.

Legend’s video is also on the hunt for 2 females — one white and one Hispanic — to share a kiss in the video with the protest going on. The casting sheet read: ‘We want to show that there is no segregation in love. But just two human beings of any race or color.’

From Daily Mail: Two female tech entrepreneurs created a fake male co-founder in an effort to get around the condescension and sexism within the industry.

Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer struggled with creating Witchsy, their own online marketplace for artists in the beginning. The pair, who are located in Los Angeles, used their own money, had minimal tech skills and faced doubt from outsiders in regards to launching their business.

‘When we were getting started, we were immediately faced with ‘Are you sure? Does this sound like a good idea?’,’ Dwyer told Fast Company. ‘I think because we’re young women, a lot of people looked at what we were doing like, ‘What a cute hobby!’ or ‘That’s a cute idea.”

As they were trying to build their business, which is a curated online marketplace for dark-humored art, they faced several obstacles. First, a web developer they hired to build their site tried to delete everything after Gazin declined to go on a date with him.

After a while, they noticed a pattern of receiving condescending toned emails from outside developers and graphic designers that they enlisted to help them. The duo claimed that often times those individuals were male and were slow to respond, were short in responses and somewhat disrespectful in their email exchanges.

For instance, a developer began an email with the words ‘Okay girls…’ in response to one of their requests.

The ill-mannered treatment they received from outsiders actually gave them the idea to create and introduce the third fictional co-founder, Keith Mann.

‘It was like night and day,’ Dwyer told Fast Company. ‘It would take me days to get a response, but Keith could not only get a response and a status update, but also be asked if he wanted anything else or if there was anything else that Keith needed help with.’

The pair continued to use Keith to interact with outsiders after finding out how using a male’s name changed the tone of conversations.

Gazin noted how one developer in particular showed more ‘deference’ to Keith than he did to her or Dwyer. ‘Whenever he spoke to Keith, he always addressed Keith by name,’ Gazin explained to Fast Company. ‘Whenever he spoke to us, he never used our names.’

Gazine and Dwyer continued to push on with their dreams for their company instead of being deterred. They even had fun. ‘I think we could have gotten pretty bent out of shape about that,’ Dwyer told Fast Company.

‘Wow, are people really going to talk to this imaginary man with more respect than us? But we were like, you know what, this is clearly just part of this world that we’re in right now. We want this and want to make this happen.’

The use of a male fake third co-founder has paid off for Gazin and Dwyer. Witchsy sold about $200,000 worth of art in its first year and paid its creator 80 per cent of each transaction. Dwyer said they have managed to turn it into a small profit.

Plus, earlier this year they received an investment from Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland. They are working with him now to create exclusive products for Witchsy.

Gazin and Dwyer aren’t seeking to get rich off their site. The duo just want to offer a platform for artists to be able to sell their work without censorship.

In the last year, Silicon Valley has had high-profile cases of sexual harassment in the tech world.

Take a look at some of the items for sale on their web page. Looks like overpriced crap to me.